The invention relates to a watch drive of an electric watch including a stepping motor having an intermediate gear disposed between the drive's electric stepping motor and a hand gear supported in a tubular center bearing which is provided with a collar abutting one of the drive's opposite bearing support plates.
As shown in DE OS No. 2620735 a support bearing for the shaft of the intermediate gear of an electric watch drive arrangement is always disposed on one of a watch drive's opposite bearing support plates next to the tubular center bearing structure which supports the watch's hands. In the process of miniaturization of watches not only the diameter of watch drives and the diameter of the gears within but also the thickness of the drives have been reduced. In modern miniaturized watches the gears have already become so small in diameter that there is hardly sufficient space and material left on the drive plate next to the center bearing structure to support the intermediate gear bearing. Also there is a need for space in this area which is utilized by modern watches to accommodate certain necessary elements (hour and minute hand drives) which are disposed on the front side of the watch drive.
The present invention provides for an arrangement which permits proper support of all the necessary bearings, especially of the intermediate gear for which particularly little space is left next to the tubular center shaft bearing.